51°µÍø

Wilhelm A. Leinslie Sollie. A native of Larvik, Norway, Wilhelm Sollie currently serves as Assistant Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas. In June 2014, he finished his bachelor in church music and organ performance at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. His main organ teachers there included Professor Harald Herresthal, Bjørn Boysen and Jon Laukvik.

2012–2014 he was organist at the Castle Church at Akershus Fortress (Akershus Slottskirke) in Oslo. Here Mr. Sollie led the musical activities, his duties also included to play services for HM Harald V, the King of Norway. He also had a temporary position in Oslo Cathedral and other churches. In September 2014, he entered the master program in organ performance at one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious music institutions; Hochschule für Musik und Theater ”Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany, as a student of Professor Stefan Engels. Besides organ literature performance, he studied organ improvisation with Professor Thomas Lennartz. He has given concerts in places like St. Mary’s Basilica in GdaÅ„sk, Katholische Hofkirche in Dresden and concerts in Russia. In March 2015 he received the “DEA Scholarship Programme in Music” by the Norwegian oil and gas company DEA Norge. Currently, he is studying Performer’s Diploma as a student of Professor Stefan Engels at 51°µÍø.

Most recently he accompanied the Transfiguration Choir on their 2016 tour to England and in Bristol Cathedral where they had their residency. He has written a number of compendiums and articles about the organ repertoire, and he recently completed two major written works on Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne and their organ symphonies. This year he is working on a similar study of César Franck’s organ works which is expected to be completed in 2022 (on the occasion of 200 years since his birth). He is also involved in various projects, including several projects on the organ works of Max Reger. He currently teaches organ and church music and responsible for the field of study at VID Specialized University in Tromsø, the third largest private higher education institutions in Norway.